Harold Thomas Martin III (born November 1964) is an American computer scientist and former contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton who in 2019 pleaded guilty to illegally removing 50 terabytes of classified information from the National Security Agency.
[4][5] The motive for the crime has been a subject of debate, investigators reportedly had difficulty determining if Martin was engaged in espionage or digital hoarding since throughout his decades of work, he appeared not to have ever accessed any of the files once he removed them from government facilities.
[12] Upon leaving the military, Martin remained in the D.C. metro area, continuing his education with a master's degree in information systems from George Mason University in 2004, and maintaining his security clearance working for government contractors including Computer Sciences Corporation and Tenacity Solutions.
[13][14][15] He was later hired by defense staffing giant Booz Allen Hamilton, tasked to the National Security Agency from 2012 to 2015, during which time he worked with the elite Tailored Access Operations unit, albeit in a support capacity.
[16] In 2015, while still a contractor for Booz Allen, Martin moved to the Pentagon's Office of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L), working at a Department of Defense facility in Alexandria, Virginia up until his arrest in 2016.
[21] The New York Times described Martin as an "introverted loner," citing a former colleague's description of a man with a "sort of Walter Mitty-complex" which drove him to engage in fantasticism and grandiose delusions.
[21] According to The Times, though outwardly introverted, online Martin feigned a militant confidence about the future of cyberwarfare, writing "the battles ahead will require a special breed of warrior."
"[21] While attempting to trace the source of the Shadow Brokers leak in the summer of 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was alerted by the NSA to a post made by Martin, who allegedly communicated via the Twitter account @HAL_999999999.